CPC2020: A greener Global Britain? Reducing our environmental footprint overseas - a podcast by Conservative Environment Network

Panel: Sam Hall (CEN Director, Chair), Kate Norgrove (Executive Director of Advocacy and Campaigns, WWF), Anthony Browne MP (CEN), Bernice Lee (Executive Director, Hoffmann Centre for Sustainable Resource Economy at Chatham House), Rt Hon George Eustice MP (Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

As a nation of nature lovers, the British public were horrified by the images of fires burning through the Amazon rainforest last summer, which sparked widespread demands for more to be done to protect the world's largest and most precious tropical rainforest. But it is not just the Amazon which is under threat - 420 million hectares of global forest have been lost through land conversion since 1990. 90% of global wetlands have disappeared since 1700, with catastrophic consequences for wildlife - with an 84% in freshwater species since 1970. The seriousness of the problem has become increasingly apparent during the Covid-19 pandemic, with scientists pointing to a clear link between habitat loss and the emergence of animal-borne diseases. So what contribution can the UK make to halting the destruction of these biodiverse and carbon-rich ecosystems, which millions of people rely on for food and shelter, and what policies are required to reduce our overseas land footprint?

Deforestation and land conversion is a global problem driven by international consumption - more than 50% of this change is the result of commercial agriculture and forestry. In the UK, we use an area almost the size of our own land mass to satisfy our annual demand for commodities such as palm oil, timber and soy, and that number is increasing. The government has recognised the need to reduce our global footprint, and is now consulting on a new world-leading law requiring large businesses to end deforestation in their supply chains. Building on this leadership, this panel will consider how a newly independent and truly global Britain can use levers such as trade policy, alongside its presidency of COP26, to further encourage sustainable production and development overseas.

With deforestation accounting for 11% of greenhouse gas emissions and the most recent Living Planet Index showing a 68% decline in species population sizes, protecting and restoring nature worldwide is essential if we’re to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees and reverse biodiversity decline. What can the UK do to scale up investment in nature-based solutions at COP26, and how can we support an ambitious post-2020 framework to restore nature at the international biodiversity summit (CBD) in China?

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